EDMONTON – Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk’s budget cuts will force more than 60 employees out of work at Lakeland College campuses as multiple programs are being eliminated to satisfy the Alberta government’s harsh 7.3-per-cent budget cut.

The cuts will eliminate programs offered in Camrose, Lloydminster, Vermilion, and Edmonton, including paramedic training, Licensed Practical Nursing, applied business and more.

The cuts will take jobs away from 35 employees represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, in addition to 20 faculty and eight administrative staff.

“Programs offered in rural Alberta are the first to be sunk by Minister Lukaszuk’s new Campus Alberta,” said AUPE President Guy Smith.

“If you want to become a nurse and you live in Lloydminster, you now have to leave your family behind, and shoulder the expenses of an education in Edmonton. It’s becoming a common theme: fewer jobs and lower quality programs if you live in rural Alberta,” he said.